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Did Vulcan Forge a Divine Deal with the City?

Mayor Nickels is going to give his buddy, Paul Allen (and his company, Vulcan Real Estate), one final parting gift. And everybody’s rushing to get this done before the end of the year, because you know what happens in January: we will definitely have a new mayor, and likely a very different looking Seattle City Council. Maybe Nickels could also pardon a bunch of people while he’s signing it (does he have that power?).

The topic at hand, though, is that UW Medicine is working with Vulcan properties to build what’s becoming colloquially known as “UW Medicine Phase III“. Located on the corner of 8th and Republican, this area is currently zoned SM 65, or “Seattle Mixed Use 65″, which can be 65 feet tall. I support the UW expanding their presence in the neighborhood, and I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find a group of people picketing the project with signs saying “NO More Health Science Workers”.

I have a problem with both the process the city is using to come up with this outcome, as well as the outcome itself. The process seems shifty, and the outcome may permanently mar the neighborhoods streetscape. If a good process came up with a poor product, well, at least we had our say and worked our work, and when a poor process comes up with a great product, then, hey, we got a new great process! But, this is neither a good process nor a good outcome.

The Department of Planning and Development is requesting a specific text amendment (which you can find here ). This amendment says that instead of making a 65′ tall building, we’re going to make a 125′ tall building. And on top of that, we’re going to stack another 15 feet of junk (HVAC equipment, etc) on the outside façade of the building, resulting in a 140′ building. So, standing next to this all element of human scale will be lost. It will be the tallest building for many blocks.

Let’s look at the proposed outcome; here is a picture of what is being proposed:

A few comments:

The roof of the courtyard (inner) area will be 110 feet tall, and the street level (on all four faces) will be 140 feet tall. In other words, the structure will look like a big U, with the highest walls for, well, “U” and me to see.

The “public” green space is really pretty much a joke. At points it is only 30 feet wide, surrounded on three sides by sheer 110 foot buildings. It’ll be quite nice for the lab workers to have lunch, perhaps, but there’s no reason anyone from the neighborhood would walk in there.

There are no plans for retail on the exterior of the structure.

UW Phase two was recently completed, and is located across the street. It is owned by the same owners (Vulcan) and operated by the same operators (UW), and it falls within all zoning laws coming in at 85 feet. It seemed to work out ok for everyone. Why do we need the extra height now, for just this one block?

Now the real problems I have with this project center around the process used to get to this point.

Vulcan is getting preferential treatment which the average citizen or business project might not have access to. If you wanted to change the zoning on your land, do you think that the city would initiate the process on your behalf?

They’re doing what’s called a text amendment (click here to read it), allowing for buildings to go up to 125 feet if they meet several conditions, such as “A site [that] is bounded on two sides by arterials and is greater than 60,000 square feet in area and no more 100,000 square feet in area”. Huh? That seems pretty odd. I wonder how many blocks in the neighborhood will be affected by this? Hmmm. Let’s see now. OK. Got it. One. One block is covered. This block. The one we’re discussing. Vulcan’s block. It probably isn’t strictly legal to say “take Vulcan’s block and allow them to build it bigger;” but, if they did say that, at least we’d know what they were trying to do.

I asked Diane Sugimura (who is always very helpful and professional), the Director of the Department of Planning and Development how come. Her response (in part): “In cases where significant benefits to the city are identified, the Mayor and DPD will initiate the necessary text amendment.”

There’s already a study in progress that is looking at changing the zoning for the whole neighborhood. This is called the South Lake Union Urban Form Study, and it’s nearing its final phases (should have a draft out in perhaps a few months). The group of people with input into these regular meetings is highly diverse, including the Lake Union Opportunity Alliance, South Lake Union Friends and Neighbors, Cascade Neighborhood Council, the SLU Chamber of Commerce, and many others. This is where the real neighborhood planning is taking place, not in the behind the scenes deal making at City Hall.

According to Ms. Sugmimura :”At the earliest, any zoning recommendation that would result from the Urban Form Study would not be ready until first quarter 2011, with City Council consideration of any potential zone changes occurring after that. Phase III is an important project that is ready to move forward now, which means that project planning and approvals will be required before the new zoning will become effective. ” Why not wait and see what the neighborhood says, rather than, well, ramming through zoning changes that benefit one landowner?

Does this project provide anything back to the city, in exchange for the upzone? It sure provides a large financial benefit to Vulcan, making it possible for them to build a much larger building.

I’m a member of the Lake Union Opportunity Alliance group, which maybe gives me a bias. We are trying to build a step down in height coming from downtown towards the lake. Sticking a 140′ building 2 blocks from the lake doesn’t help that goal. And the way that this project is getting fast-tracked through an outgoing government seems fishy to me.

At the very least why don’t wait until January, and see how everyone feels about this then?

My name is Kevin McCarthy, and I’ll be posting more warm and touchy feelings next Tuesday. Please email me story ideas at Kevin@McCarthy.net

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..